News

Uneven Stephen?

Finance | 1 Apr 2008

There was surprise in the sector when it was announced that Futurebuilders England (FBE) would not continue to run the government’s Futurebuilders fund as of this month.

While there had been concern that money wasn’t being allocated quickly enough, there was evidence that its investments were making a real difference. Without FBE’s patient approach organisations might not have been able to make the best use of funding, assuming they were able to access it in the first place.

Outgoing chief executive Richard Gutch has suggested that the government has gone for “the gung-ho acevo approach to public service delivery rather than the more considered NCVO approach”. He thinks this will lead to money going to organisations that are “investment ready” – more present-day than future-building.

There is no suggestion that the Adventure Capital Fund under Jonathan Lewis can’t run the fund to the government’s liking, but it seems particularly strange that FBE’s experience over four years was not even considered during the tender process.

While the finer points of how things would be structured under ACF were still being hammered out, whispers of the appropriateness of the role of ACF chair Stephen Bubb started to circulate.

Would there be a potential conflict of interest in the chief executive of acevo chairing one of the sector’s largest funds, particularly given how vocal Bubb has been advocating public service delivery for his members? And was it good governance for the chair of a £215m government fund to say he would have no involvement in the core business of the organisation, as a result of this?

Acevo chair, John Low, sensibly moved quickly to address these potential problems by sending a letter to members confirming that Bubb would work for four days a week at acevo (see 'Bubb cuts acevo job to four days') due to concern by its board about the extra workload that the Futurebuilders role would bring, and the wish for Bubb to “keep the two roles distinct”.

Of course, Bubb is no stranger to controversy, indeed it wouldn’t be unfair to say that he thrives on it. His new blog proudly proclaims it will reveal “the inside track of a third sector leader influencing in Whitehall, championing professionalism and causing a stir”.

Much of the blog is the usual type of thing – pithy insights into Bubb’s busy work life, and his choice of pets, while dropping more names than a clumsy phone book delivery boy, but he cannot resist a dig at FBE with a comment about needing to do a good job steering Futurebuilders “back on to track in supporting service delivery through the third sector”.

He also thinks Ed Miliband and Phil Hope should be warmly congratulated on the work they did behind the scenes to get the transitional relief on gift aid (see 'No change in how to claim gift aid, says HMRC'), and suggests that the sector should show appreciation for this instead of whinging. “Whinging has its place. However, so does thanks for a job well done.” Let’s hope that the future of Futurebuilders echoes the last three words of that sentence rather than provoking plenty of the first.

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Directory: Futurebuilders England
Who's Who: Jonathan Lewis | Richard Gutch | Sir Stephen Bubb